Painting Sunlight : 2016

 "Morning Sun"

(Copyright Jean Haines) 

My cat in morning sunshine.

I walked into our cottage kitchen this morning to see my cat soaking up the early mornings' rare glimpse of Autumn sunshine. Our ginger cat Biscuit reminded me of Buster, her sibling that passed away due to Cancer earlier this year. He would always sit in the full sunlight, blinking his eyes making me think he needed sunglasses. He would purr loudly as he caught each warm sun ray on his beautiful face.

Following yesterdays " What Is It?" blog post I couldn't resist painting a cat again this morning and what better cat to paint than one of my own. So this blog post is a tribute to my Buster, a very fluffy and affectionate male ginger that had the most massive of tails. In fact when he was a kitten I hoped he would grow into his tail as it always looked far too big for his little body.

I loved the experimental wash that I created yesterday that was aimed for the bin. So this morning I started a new wash using colours to represent my ginger cat. I allowed water to flow freely through my initial colour application and began dropping in my darks for the tiger stripe effect of Busters fur. I allowed this first wash to dry then began to add detail.  

A blinking cat was a challenge for me  as I love painting eyes open. It would have been so much more interesting to add an open eye here but then the story would change. My cat literally did blink in the sun and was often seen with his eyes half open. I managed to capture that effect by working around a fortunate area of white paper. This tiny white section acts as the highlight of my cats eye. This can be seen in the close up of Busters face below.

 "Morning Sun "

(Copyright Jean Haines)

Close up of the larger painting 

I rather like the crop of the large painting so will probably try this in a new painting now. Of course the title will be "Blinking!" 

What is interesting about this painting is that it was inspired by a closing exercise in my studio yesterday which was on a scarp of paper destined for the bin and it is in the bin now. But I hadn't intended painting cats at all. I am working on several projects involving art features and not one includes a painting of a cat. But from here in I think I am back in love with painting these feline creatures. They are purrfect for watercolour pigment effects and I just feel a series coming on.

Watch this space!

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